When the heats goes on; energy alternatives

Whether you heat with oil, as so many do or with gas, the time is nearly here to turn it on.

Gas is marginally cheaper than oil and it is in greater abundance in the Northeast.

Oil, as all of us who use it to heat our homes know, has become extremely expensive.

A gallon of home heating oil this week will cost the average consumer about $2.40 to $2.80 a gallon, dependent upon the oil supplier one uses.

Gas is also as expensive over the course of a New England winter.

There are no bargains with gas – and there won’t be in the future.

The future for oil consumers is bleak.

If all things are equal, a gallon of heating oil could be as much as $5.00 a gallon in five to ten years.

Gas will follow in steady price increases.

There is no way out – or is there a way out?

On Cape Cod, the Cape Wind project is set to harness the prevailing gusts that will power large generators that will produce enormous amounts of electricity without using oil, gas or atomic energy.

The idea is being pilloried by the oil and gas lobbies and pilloried as well by citizens groups. Countless articles in the major dailies have been written and one Boston daily believes the idea borders upon insanity.

Some say harnessing the great potential of the wind is too expensive.

It will cost too much. The energy produced will be more expensive than the energy that comes from the oil and gas we buy right now.

Missing from all these articles and from the essence of the concerns being articulated across the board is where we will be when a gallon of home heating oil hits $5.00 and gas is in the same range if we haven’t embarked on other means to harness plentiful and cleaner methods of generating energy.

Bottom line. Cape Wind energy may be more expensive now but later it will be the alternative to fossil fuels we will no longer be able to afford unless something very dramatic takes place.

Arguing that Cape Wind is simply too expensive to get off the ground and to produce and to consume in the short run is to entirely overlook the harsh reality we face as a region and as a nation.

When the price of oil hits $125 a barrel – a day not to far away – we will be moving much faster and with greater urgency to produce as many Cape Wind projects as we can until we are self-reliant for our own energy needs.

Relying on the world’s oil to satisfy our consumption of it is bankrupting the nation.

Heating out homes this winter will be pricey – but nothing compared with what is ahead if we don’t get a move on.